Brazilian defensive midfielder Gilberto Aparecido da Silva, nicknamed “Parede Invisível” (The Invisible Wall), a member of the Brazilian National Team ( the Seleção ), has played most of his career for Northern London club Arsenal FC. Gilberto is also a passionate cavaquinho / mandolin player.

Silva spends a lot of his spare time studying the cavaquinho, which is a 4-string small mandoline / guitar (that looks pretty much like a ukelele).
When he moved to the United Kingdom at the beginning of his career for Arsenal FC (2002) he started attending mandoline classes.

“I can just about manage one or two things on the mandolin. I’m advancing very slowly, but just about ok.”

He’s been doing public performances at his local pub in St. Albans. Later he switched instruments and also began studying the classical 6-string guitar.

“There is a hidden scene of Brazilian musicians in London. My mandolin teacher plays in a pub where I like to go with my sister. He plays with others on guitar, double bass, drums; it’s a mix of Brazilian music with jazz, something really nice.”

Silva is always in the mood for playing samba music with his team mates in the Brazilian National Team, between international matches.

“Ronaldinho is the one who organizes the samba singalongs behind the scenes at Brazil games. He’s the leader, right! The captain of samba ! But I’m not there yet. It’s only now that I’m getting better, because you need to practice the whole time.”

Gilberto Silva, Denílson Pereira Neves and Julio Baptista : Arsenal samba.

This clip was shot in Gilberto Silva’s house in Hertfordshire. After a home cooked Brazilian diner, these 3 friends started playing the cavaquinho and singing and dancing.
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This is another clip of Gilberto Silva playing and singing :
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 7:06 am and is filed under musical sportsmen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.